While last week was disappointing with the turnovers, I'm hoping Willis just had a bad day and we had a bit of first week jitters. Hoping today we reset and set the tone for the rest of the season. Let's Go.

We see HH either when Willis throws his second pick or when we are up by 4 scores before halftime.

Warning: this post occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors)..

I am so hyped for the first home game of the year! We left our daughter with my parents so we could enjoy a day of fun, dood, and FOOTBALL. My mom looked at me like I was crazy when I was doing my happy football dance before we left the house. You'd think she would be used to this by now. Let's Go!

Warning: this post occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors)..

Two things I really want to see. Well three if you include VT winning. But those other two things are for the running game to have a good game, specifically King. And to have a different QB play by the third quarter.

I think that the inexperience of last year's team made it really difficult / impossible for Bud to make in-game adjustments. Last week Bud made his adjustments at half time and the defense played well. I believe before the end of the year, the defense will have enough experience that he will be able to make adjustments during either of the halves.
I am rooting for the whole team (especially, Willis) to have such a good game that there will be no reason for any of us fans to have anything but good to say.

Big game today. Listening to the pregame show on the radio, and you can sense everyone needs to see a blowout win today to right the ship. I've got a bad feeling about it but hoping we come out and show some fight. Hopefully the pressure for a statement win doesn't psych out the team.

I don't see the hesitation that some are feeling. Only question is will our win be big enough. I hope King has a breakout game. It would be nice to see our run game look good. I doubt it's gonna look great but hopefully at least good.

100 times or of 100 I would rather them let a really close play continue for extra yards then for them to call it dead immediately. In real time that was extremely close since his heal was over the sideline. If they call it dead then we lose all of that extra yardage.

You can survive with bend don't break defense as long as you don't break.

That's the key. In college football especially the key factor in scoring drives is 20+ yard plays (explosive plays). If you limit those college offenses have a tendency to stop themselves quite often. However, the big key here is, once again, not breaking.

Willis has been late and high on several passes so far. Needs to make quicker reads and place the ball a bit better. The one over the middle to turner could've gone for more if it was on time and he didn't have to jump for it.

Willis hasn't been great so far. That specific stall out wasn't solely on him but he hasn't impressed me. I think we need to switch things up & with HH who's more of a dual threat to see what he can do.

What a catch by Grimsley. Receivers have had some drops but maybe that will get them going. Dax is not having his best game but he's a competitor, going to see if he can start turning it around before half. Go Hokies!

I'm really wondering what the hell Kumah and Cunningham were thinking transferring to ODU. Both would have had playing time, VT clearly lets them show their skills better. Looks like a move made out of spite.

We are winning, but this is not a very convincing effort at all. We are in a tight battle with ODU who is objectively a very bad team. I'm seriously concerned with this offense. If we can't run the ball against these guys, it's not getting any easier in ACC play. And Willis has gotten lucky on a few throws. This isn't the statement we needed to make so far. We are soft soft soft. Way too finesse.

I hear you, but this OL was not going to man handle ODU (like they should) with a single player. When 3-4 guys on the OL are getting zero to negative push on every running play, we have a bigger problem, and Fuente should dress it at some point in his tenure.

People cannot use Hoffman to excuse the play of this OL. He may have made us marginally better, but one guy is not going to drastically impact the play of a unit of 5. That explanation is just not going to fly.

Makes you question our O-line effort....like someone said below....some of the linemen are wondering down field not blocking anyone.....it's disheartening to watch.....hope the coach can fix it before we play another P5 team or we're doomed!

Vegas, who are completely objective and care only about being right, pretty much predicted this halftime score differential. As a program, yes we should be up 30. But this team is right where they're expected to be.

You are way more optimistic about this than I am at this point. I was all on board with the optimism heading into the season, but these first 6 quarters have drained me of all hope about where we are as a program

17-3 at the half. Not very good IMO. This team still has no identity on offense, and it all starts with the absolute Sh!t show that is the OL in the run game.

I thought that 8-9 wins should be the expectation this season, but we may very well be a 6-7 win team with the worst schedule of all P-5 schools. Fuente may very well continue his losing ways against almost all P-5 competition he faces. 2021 cannot come soon enough.

I mean we're not going to lose this game. Why not just put Hooker in the second half and get him some experience? Willis is a redshirt senior. A second half against Old Dominion isn't going to do him many favors.

Marshall University graduate.
Virginia Tech fanatic.
Formerly known as JWillHokieAlum.

I think this part of Fuente's open competition approach could be more nuanced, or at least the way he talks about it. Josh Jackson is far more reliable than Ryan Willis based on what I've seen (9 multiple INT games out of how many starts for willis?). If predictable outcomes matter, I just can't believe that Ryan Willis had even a good chance of starting over JJ had he remained with the program.

So, as far as making sure that the players are always fighting for a spot...I like it. I wonder if Fuente had given Josh his propers without excluding others from the competition that things might have turned out differently. For example, "Josh has been the most consistent guy we've had when he's been healthy, and I think he can get even better. I would be pleasantly surprised to see one of our other guys play so well as to win the starting spot and I think Josh would agree with that statement. That said, we always let the summer play out before we release the 2-deep."

I am assuming a lot about Jackson's motivations for moving on. It seems logical though.

The identity of this team was illustrated by the effort by Silas Dzanzi on that screen pass that had a holding penalty called. He was slowly jogging down the field as a lead blocker and not really looking to block anyone. The Safety pushes him and he drops like a bag of potatoes and gets injured.

ughh....i was really reserving judgement after the BC game. I saw the potential and obviously the mistakes that directly led to the difference. I don't know how we are doing this poorly against ODU. Hezzy saved a pick with the awesome grab in the endzone and then Willis gets lucky as the ODU defender drops it.

I'm not sure what's up with the defense today. We can stuff AJ Dillon but are allowing ODU to grab chunks of yds on the ground?

Run blocking is abysmal. I don't think I've ever seen run blocking this bad. I mean ODU has penetration on every run we have.

Dax looks slow today.

WR are able to fake out ODU DBs and are the reason we are winning. I was fine going into this game but the way they are playing i'm not comfortable.

VT sux's on O line and D line so bad it's shameful!!! D line cannot get off blocks or pressure QB and O line cannot get any movement against a lower level D line. If we get 6 wins this year we will be lucky. I watched JJ and UM and JJ is miles ahead of RW.....not even close! JF is suppose to be a QB guru or whatever but he's a joke!! I had so much hope for him after what he did at Memphis but it looks like a fluke now......As bad as I hate to say it......Bud Foster can't coach his way out of a wet paper bag! NO more excuses about recruits....he's been the D coach for 30 plus years and it's his fault we don't have the talent. I'm almost of the mindset to clean house and start over....not sure there's a coach that can come in and fix it but I know this staff is going no where fast. Hoping I'm wrong but watching todays game has been painful....Always and forever a Hokie fan win, lose, or draw but winning is so much sweeter!

Yes, this is a lower level team and OUR D line cannot get off blocks, linebackers are missing lanes/tackles, and most of our secondary is afraid to tackle/question their ability to cover.......against a P5 team it's not going to be good enough to win.....thats my opinion of what i'm seeing....If you're seeing it differently; let's hope your right!

I'm just going to come out and say it, if you're watching the MD game instead of this one just so you can say how much better JJ is you're a fake fan, please stop telling me how good JJ is playing, like it's in any way relevant to this game or VT football

You put those words together, those are my favorite words, Popeyes and bahama
- Mike Burnup

Sorry iceman but it's relevant to discuss our coaching staff and/or lack of coaching!! FWIW I've been a VT fan since the early 80's and always will be! We are just discussing what we are seeing....thats what a discussion board is for right? It's ok for us to support JJ he was a Hokie.....and some of us are wishing he still was.

He messed up on his break at the top of the route. I'd rather him take a penalty than let the guy go past you, but I'm not happy with the play. He's gotta be more consistent in his hip turn to avoid that bad footwork.

The O-line, TE's, WR's are as good as VA Tech has ever had and the RB's are at least serviceable. The QB's do have some talent. This is PATHETIC!!! Hokies should be scoring 50 or more with all the weapons and talent they have. Defense and Special Teams have too much talent...WTF!!! On paper we are a top 25 team and 2 weeks in a row we look awful. This is no knocking off rust, team drama...etc. this time. This coaching staff has some issues!!!

I honestly don't think there is any way ODU actually wins, but yeah. What is the takeaway? I don't watch the press conferences usually because coach speak happens and it's pointless, although I get why they do it. But what do you even say if you're Fuente?

This is pathetic that we're struggling to beat teams like ODU at HOME or anywhere for that matter, this today even if we manage to win needs to be the final straw in my opinion, I'm sorry but 24 points against ODU half way thru the 4th is just abysmal it's time to move on from the Justin Fuente experiment.

The frustrating thing is, Willis is a fifth-year senior and been in this system 3 years. He still makes careless decisions and tries to play hero ball. And very frustrating that a r-Sr who plays at times like a freshman is all we have.